This class is the first class that I took after being accepted into the entrepreneurship minor and it did not disappoint! The class is very informative and professor Borman talks about his own experiences a lot, which I thought was super interesting and fun to listen to. It shows that he is passionate about what he does and is coming from an industry expert perspective to lecture. I found it super easy to engage in the class material if you’ve done the pre-lecture readings assigned. The midterms and final can be stressful because there are no practice exams posted so I didn’t know what to expect. But really, this is not one of those courses where even if you show up to every single lecture you still have no clue on the exam. All exam questions came straight from the lectures and the readings. In my opinion, in-person attendance > zoom for this class 100%. The exams are such a time crunch tho, especially the midterms, so definitely know the materials well. Also, I’d recommend taking notes on a doc where you can control-F to find keywords during exams, since the exams are super time constrained you don’t have time to flip through all the notes. Finally, since this is a finance and accounting-related course, having taken mgmt 1a and 1b did help me a lot in the first half of the course.

As a non-accounting major student, MGMT 164 was challenging but rewarding since I was able to learn accounting as a practical tool to understand how businesses operate and grow. The workload was consistent, with two case studies that were included in five homework assignments, and two exams (midterm and final) during the quarter. Also, it does require keeping up with the concepts weekly; Professor Borman frequently cold-calls during class, so be prepared to answer questions. I would highly recommend it to students seeking a practical introduction to accounting/finance without a prior background in these fields.

Overall I though Professor Borman was a solid professor, he seems like he really wants to help students and while the material is pretty dry he does well of relating it to the real world. The tests are pretty challenging and time consuming but as long as you read, take good notes and do the suggested practice problems you should be fine.

First of all, his lecture is very dry and he just reads off from the slide. Do not expect him to teach you every details of accounting in the class. Basically, you have to teach yourself by memorizing all the concepts in the text book and do all the problems in the book. Hes exams made absolute no sense to me since most of his questions required to write an short essay. Even the simple questions like calculations or entering journal entry, he made it impossible to get a full credit because you have write your own statement to justify your answer. If he didn't like your explanation of the answer, you will get only a partial credit even though your answer is correct. His grading scheme is not clear and fair since most of the test questions were asking you to write an answer that would result in subjective grading. I wouldn't recommend any of his classes he teaches in UCLA.

As long as you read the text book, you should at least get a B. Slides go over key points of book but there will be specific things he doesn't go over that will show up in exams, so read the book. Work load isn't much, unless you read the book, then its a lot of reading. Do the practice midterms, I didn't even bother with practice problems from book. Class has 2 quizzes, final, and 1 memo project that doesn't take too much time. He is nice and helpful as long as you reach out. If you don't like reading and prefer doing intense journal entries and calculations then you should probably take Ravetch.

I haven't received a grade yet in this class (still waiting for it to be posted). The class has been fine overall. Sure, the slides and his presentations aren't the most engaging ones. However, he gives a disclaimer at the beginning of the class that since this is a very straightforward and dry topic, we students cannot expect much of an engagement during class. He really appreciates it if students go for OH because he really cares about us and so is willing to re-explain concepts. But yes, his quizzes are very very time-constrained and so you will definitely not finish the test. He knows that his tests are super long so he does curve the class sufficiently. Also, the tests are open book so that is a major blessing. His slides are useful in the sense you know what are the topics that are important and will be on the test (and you know what exactly to read in the book) but the content of his slides is a copy paste from the textbook. He basically follows the book word to word - this has its own advantages and disadvantages. Overall, I would recommend this class if you are willing to read a textbook and are good at extracting information from your laptop during a time-constrained test because you can definitely do well on the test if you attend his lectures (to catch the minute details that won't be in the books but he will definitely ask on the test) and read the chapters at least once. Also GO TO HIS OH!! HE LOVES THAT!!

Classic case of great person but not-so-great professor. He is very accessible outside of class as he will even allow you to make appointments if you can't make it to his office hours. However given that this was his second year teaching, he has a lot to improve, particularly on transferring knowledge into his students. It would also be great to have a clear grading structure as his graders often graded many students' exams pretty unfairly. I've heard he's at least better than Ravetch so there you go.

Casey is helpful and approachable most of the time, you can easily make an appointment with him or simply go to his OH. His lecture is super boring, basically just reads off the slides, which come from the textbook almost word for word. Exams are really time-consuming (except for the first midterm, it was alright) and difficult, but I guess that's part of the reason why it's open book; yet it barely helps as you would not even have time to look anything up if you wish to finish the exam. In order to do well in this class, I think you need to have all the basic concepts memorized to save time in the exam and do LOTS of practices from the book assignment to get familiar with the materials even though he does not assign any. There's also a Memo assignment which I would highly recommend you to go to his OH to get his opinions on your draft b/c the neither instruction nor the rubric is clear and it's heavily based on his perspective on the project instead of the accurateness of your work even though you follow the textbook closely. (btw, the line before the memo is due is INSANE, come early) Finally, Casey is a nice guy but not good at teaching.

I have never written a review on bruinwalk but I feel that Professor Borman deserves one so here it is:

First of All, I would like to note that this class is not an "easy A." You will need to read the book and pay attention in lecture if you want to do well. I would suggest reading the assigned chapters before lecture as he tends to expand on the ideas from the book rather than simply regurgitating the main ideas. Also, pay attention to what he emphasizes in class; often, he will test on topics he emphasizes heavily.

He assigns memos which allow you to apply concepts from class to real-world situations. As long as you begin early, you can go to office hours and he can help you if you're struggling. He is very approachable and certainly the most helpful professor I had the opportunity to learn with. As long as you give yourself sufficient time (3-4 days at least), these memos should only help your grade and not hurt you.

He is a very fair professor. When I took the class with him, many students struggled with the second memo. Because of this, he actually assigned an extra-credit memo. He cares about students' success more so than many other professors at UCLA.

His exams are pretty tough but, as long as you go over the problems at the end of each chapter and review your lecture notes/slides, you can do well. His exams are also open book/laptop but no internet is allowed. I would have received an A in this class had I not slacked off after the second midterm and bombed the final; learn from my mistakes.

I had such a good experience in this class that I actually signed up to take MGMT 126 - financial statement analysis with Professor Borman over the summer (I highly recommend this class as well as there are very few students and the learning experience is more personalized.). I also took MGMT 127A with him.

A few months after taking MGMT 126 with Borman, I reached out to him to ask for slides as I was trying to independently-study certain finance topics that were covered in the class and he got them to me in a timely manner. I've had other accounting professors refuse to do this. He also is always willing to speak about possible career-paths for his students.

In my opinion, professor Borman is the best the accounting department has to offer.

Borman is a nice guy with real-world experience in the industry and is also a bad professor. He knows it since he prefaced it in the first class with “I am not an academic” (it’s okay, neither am I). In regards to the older reviews, it looks like he's becoming better at teaching, since the midterms weren't that difficult (if you attended his review sessions) and we only had to do one memo (which I somehow got a passing grade on despite BS'ing it at the last minute). I’m still glad that I took this class since it made me realize how I’m really not meant for accounting.

Because of the craziness that happened at the end of our quarter, I believe he gave us a generous curve (just did the math and I should've gotten a C+ instead). This proves that he really /is/ a nice guy! Thanks Casey!!

Here’s the grade breakdown (out of 1000 points):
- Homework: 70
- Participation: 70
- Quiz 1: 145
- Quiz 2: 175
- Memo: 230
- Final Exam: 310